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Quidditch
playing the sport]] '''Quidditch '''was the very popular wizarding sport played on broomsticks. The object of the game was to score higher points than the opposing team done in two ways - one by scoring goals which were 10 points, and the other by catching the Snitch which awarded the team 150 points. The game would end when the Snitch was won or an agreement was made between the two captains. The length of the game depends on the players since games are known to be won both in seconds and even in three months. The passion for the sport means the same to witches and wizards than that of football for muggles. There are leagues and international games which make up the Quidditch World Cup, held every four years. Overview Each side will have seven players - one Keeper, one Seeker, three Chasers and two Beaters. The Chasers need to hunt the Quaffle and throw it to each other when attempting to score a goal through one of 3 hoops. The Keeper needs to save the ball from going through those hoops. Each goal wins 10 points. The Beaters have two Bludgers - one for each team. The Beater rockets around and attempts to knock the Bludgers with a bat at the players on the other side in order to knock them off the broom. Many people think the Seeker's part in the game to be very, very important compared to that of the Keeper, Chasers and Beaters. The Seeker weaves around every player and object in order to find and catch the Snitch, a small ball with wings which attempts to escape from the Seeker. The Seeker from both teams need to find it before the other in order to end the game and potentially win it for their team. They need to ensure their team will win if they catch the Snitch and are up by enough points, otherwise the 150 points will not mean anything to them. Matches The game begins around a central circle. In the middle of the circle, the four balls are let go. The Bludgers and Snitch are bewitched to fly on their own but the Quaffle needs to be thrown in the air, at which point the signal for the players to begin the game will be given. One of the Chasers on the pitch will then catch the ball and attempt to move down towards the 3 goals guarded by the other side's Keeper. They may throw the ball in any of 3 goals and win the 10 points. In the meantime, they might throw the ball to one of the other Chasers on the team, the Beaters will attempt to knock them over with the Bludgers and the Seekers will begin looking for the Snitch. When the other team score, the Keeper will then throw the ball back into play. When the Seeker finds the Golden Snitch, they will race the other for it. Many Seekers tag the other until they find the Snitch for them. In order to keep from arguing about who touched the Snitch before the other, the Snitch will have flesh memories and let the right player win it (but they are not foolproof). The game ends when the Seeker wins the Snitch but the winner will be the team with higher points - the Snitch will have no bearing on who wins unless the 150 points adds up and puts them higher. The match may go on for however long it needs to until the Snitch will be won and a winner decided. The captain may demand a time out whenever they want which takes places off the pitch, and the player may fly however high they want within the boundary of the pitch. If one the players commits a foul, the other team may be given a penalty taken by one of the Chasers by flying from the center circle towards the goal, and only the Keeper may try and save it. Equipment * Broomstick * Team jersey and cape * Gloves * Goggles when it rains * Beater's Bat (four players in one game will have one) * The Quaffle * Two Bludgers * One Snitch Rules The International Confederation of Wizards' Quidditch Committee monitors the sport of which the rules of modern Quidditch were outlined by the Ministry of Magic in 1750. The rules are - # Players should never go over the boundary lines of the pitch but they may fly however high they want. The Quaffle will be given to the other side if one of the players break the rule. # The captain may demand a time out whenever they want. The length of time they may have depends on how long the game was played for. Every player needs to be back on the pitch in time before the game begins again or the team will forfeit the match. If the game was played for twelve hours by the time of a time-out, the players may have a two hour break. # In the case of a penalty, one of the Chasers have to take it and they need to fly from the center circle of the pitch towards the scoring area. The Keeper should be the only person who attempts to save it. The other players may not attempt to intervene. # Players should not seize hold of another player's broomstick, their body or clothes. # There should be no substitutions unless the game goes on for such a long time that the players need to sleep. Then another team may take their place. # The players may take the wand on the pitch but it should only be used in the event of a life-threatening situation. They should not attempt to put any spell on any person at the game, whether they are on the pitch or spectators or on any of the balls. # The game may only be ended by a player catching the Snitch or at the mutual choice of both teams captains. # The Keeper should be the only one who attempts to block any shots thrown at the goal by the Chasers. In 1849, another rule was added which outlined that if anyone in the crowd attempted to place a spell on the game, the team they were supporting will forfeit the match even if they had no part in ordering or approving the spell. However, it's unknown whether it would be enforced because it's unfair for their team if it happens and the spectator may pretend to a fan of one team in order to sabotage them. The chances of any fan doing it would be in short supply anyway because they shouldn't want to sabotage their own team if found out. Tactics * Bludger's Backbeat - when the Beater will hit the Bludger with a back-hand swing in order to confuse the opposition. * Dionysus Dive - when the Chaser leaps on the broomstick upright and punches the Quaffle in the goal. * Double Eight Loop - the Keeper flying in front of the three goals in one loop in order to save a goal. * Finbourgh Flick - the Chaser hits the Quaffle midair with the broomstick in one of the goals. * Parkin's Pincer - when two Chasers trap an opposing team's Chaser and the third on their own team commits blatching (the cheating tactic in which they purposely collide with a player). * Plumpton Pass - hiding the Snitch in the Seeker's sleeve to confuse the opponents. * Porskoff Play - one Chaser will fly upwards and then throw the ball down to the player right underneath them. * Transylvanian Tackle - when a player fake punches an opponent's nose to confuse them (it's legal if they don't actually touch them). * Woollongong Shimmy - the Chasers fly in a zig-zag motion to confuse the opposing team's Chasers. * Wronski Faint - the Seeker will sharply dive from a high height when pretending to have found and catch the Snitch, making the opposing team's Chaser follow them. The original Seeker will then pull up from the ground at the final second, making the other Seeker dive right at it and crash. Cheating There are 700 known ways of cheating made throughout the many decades the sport was played. They were documentated and kept in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. However, they would not let these documents be looked at in case it gave people ideas. There are a few known ones but many found in those documents would not even occur to the average player of being wrong. Quidditch Through the Ages explained a number of these cheating tactics employed by players, they included - * Blatching: Flying with the intent to collide (applied to every player). * Blurting: Locking broom handles with the intent to steer an opponent off course (applied to every player). * Bumphing: Hitting Bludgers towards spectators (applied to Beaters only). * Haversacking: Hand on the Quaffle when it goes through the goal hoop – the Quaffle should only be thrown through the goal (applied to Chasers only). * Quaffle-pocking: Tampering with the Quaffle – e.g. puncturing it and making it falls more quickly or zig-zags (applied to Chasers only). * Stooging: Two or three Chaser entering the scoring area (applied to Chasers only). The following cheating tactics were mentioned for being employed by players in the 1473 World Cup. These eleven were not the only ones made in that game because both teams in fact, committed every single one of the 700 cheating tactics that day. Eleven of them included - * Transfiguring a Chaser into a polecat. * Attempted decapitation of a keeper with a broadsword. * The letting loose of one hundred blood-sucking vampire bats from under the robes of the (Transylvanian) captain. * Setting fire to an opponent's broom tail. * Attacking an opponent's broom with a club. * Attacking an opponent with an axe. Pitches The pitches are made in the shape of an oval, five hundred feet long and one-hundred and eighty feet wide. In the middle will be a small center circle about two feet in diameter. At each end of the pitch are three high hoops of three heights, the middle one being a bit higher than the other two. Surrounding the pitch are high places for spectators to watch from - whether it be from towers or even from a platform circling the entire pitch. These pitches are made in places muggles will not easily find them and they each have anti-muggle security. In 1368, it was decided that each pitch needed to be built within one-hundred miles of a muggle town. History Ancient games The modern game of Quidditch was derived from many ancient flying games from which pieces were combined together in order to make the modern game. These archaic games were popular with the locals where it was played, but they never achieved the feat of the modern game, for which inventors added their own spin on. These old games were - * Aingingein - the game was invented in Ireland in which people flew on broomsticks through barrels set alight in the air when clutching a ball in one hand. At the end of the course was a goal they had the throw the ball through. The player who completed the course in the shorter time was named the winner. * Creaothceann - invented in Scotland and known to be a very violent game that at time ended in death, a large number of boulders would be enchanted in the air while each player had a cauldron on their head. When the horn was sounded, the boulders were let go and the players had to catch a higher number of boulders in their cauldron than the other players in order to win. The game was outlawed many years ago. * Shuntbumps - from Devon, England, players would attempt to knock however many people they could off their broom and the final one on the broom wins. * Stitchstock - from Germany, a number of players would attempt to pierce an inflated dragon bladder defended by the single Keeper and whoever managed to do it before the other players wins the game. * Swivenhodge - from Herefordshire, England, players knock an inflated pig's bladder to each other over a hedge and the only known ancient Quidditch game which involved a "ball" being passed. Evolution of Quidditch In 1050, a witch by the name of Gertie Keddle wrote in her diary about a game she watched in Queerditch Marsh and she continued to write about the game's evolution in later entries. Gertie was annoyed in the beginning because the people playing the game on broomsticks above the marsh, dropped the ball in her cabbage patch. Gertie then confiscated the ball and hexed the man who asked her for it. She later wrote a second entry showing the players created a second, new ball and from then on began scoring goals with it which would later evolve into the Quaffle ball scored through hoops. The next entry introduced flying rocks bewitched to knock players off their broom. These flying rocks would later evolve into the Bludgers. One known player from the day was a "big Scottish warlock". Quidditch was not mentioned again by anyone until around 1150 when Goodwin Kneen wrote a letter to a Norweigan cousin Olaf. The original name for the game was "Kwidditch" and it now had names for the players and equipment, and a few organised teams. The Chasers are named "Catchers" in the letter and the Bludger was named the "Blooder". The goals are scored through hoops made of mounted barrels on top of high wooden planks. Evolution of the Golden Snitch By the time of Goodwin's letter, "Kwidditch" was becoming very popular and the key elements found in the modern game of Quidditch had a beginning, but the beginnings of the Golden Snitch would not be found until over 100 years later in a game played in Kent, England in 1269. The game was attended by the Chief of the Wizards' Council, Barberus Bragge who brought a bird named the Snidget (the kind of bird subject to the then popular sport of Snidget hunting). Bragge let the Snidget loose and told the players whoever caught it would win 150 galleons (a lot of money in those days). The bird was kept in the boundary of pitch by a spell which kept it from escaping, and it proved to be a very small bird that moved at high speeds and changed direction suddenly (which was why hunting them was very popular). Unfortunately, the players spent the entire time chasing the Snidget than playing the game properly. One of the spectators was a witch named Modesty Rabnott who took pity on the Snidget and saved it with the Summoning Charm. She run away by putting the bird under her robes but she was found by Bragge and fined ten galleons, fortunately by then she had let the bird loose and it flew away. But the damage was done for the Snidget species. The news of it's involvement in the game became very well-known and people had invented the "Hunter" (later named the Seeker) who would attempt to catch and kill a Snidget in every game for 150 points in memory of the prize money offered by Bragge. By the 14th century, the number of Snidgets had declined by high numbers and Elfrida Clagg of the Wizards' Council made it a protected species. The Modesty Rabnott Snidget sanctuary in Somerset was created in order to protect the Snidget's survival and the bird could no longer be part of Quidditch games. People needed to invent a suitable new substitute for the Snidget. Bowman Wright from Godric's Hollow invented a fake Snidget named the Golden Snitch - a golden ball the same size and weight of the Snidget with silver wings bewitched to follow it's flight pattern. It eliminated the need for anybody to spend the game confining it to the boundary of the pitch with spells, since it had a built-in charm which done the job for them. The Golden Snitch was approved and every single ball found in the modern game would be found in play from then on. Modern Quidditch ]] The modern game was now created but a few tweaks needed to be made. By 1692, the Quidditch World Cup would be invented. The International Confederation of Wizards' Quidditch Committee was created following the International Statute of Secrecy in order to keep the popular event hidden from the muggles. They mainly keep an eye on the entire game of Quidditch. The World Cup would be organised every four years by the Intentional Association of Quidditch. In Britain, the Department of Magical Games and Sports govern the games held in that country. Quidditch was played by local teams in the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters. The final design of the pitch would not be made until 1863. Connected pages * International Teams (who play in the World Cup) * Local Quidditch Teams by Country * Teams in the British and Irish Quidditch League ** Teams of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Notes and sources Category:Games